p. 32 | THE TWELFTH APOSTLE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 19, 1869

THE TWELFTH APOSTLE.

“Who was the twelfth apostle, Matthias or Paul? Please answer through the Review, as there is a difference of opinion on the point.”

ANSWER. We think Matthias was taken to fill the place of Judas, and make good the number of twelve apostles which Christ had at first ordained. Matthias, says the record, “was numbered with the eleven.” There were more than twelve apostles in the first age of the church, though the twelve were pre-eminently such. It was an essential feature of their apostleship that they should have been personally acquainted with the Lord, and with the events of his ministry. Hence when they designated two men, one of whom should be chosen to fill the place of Judas, they were particular to state in their behalf that they had companied with them, all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from them; and that such persons were the proper ones to be chosen to be witnesses of his resurrection. Acts i, 21, 22. And Paul afterward seems to base his claim of equality with the twelve on the fact that he had also seen the Lord, in addition to being sent to preach the gospel. “Last of all,” he says, “he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” 1 Cor. xv, 8, referring to his miraculous vision of Christ on the way to Damascus. Again he says, Am I not an apostle? . . . Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? But there were other apostles still; Barnabas was one. Acts xiv, 14. Titus and other brethren, were called messengers (Greek, apostles). 2 Cor. viii, 22, 23. The same is true also of Epaphroditus. Phil. ii, 25.